


This Could Dragon Awhile

by Miasunrise



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Dragons, Drama, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, Romance, idiots to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-11 20:02:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20551901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miasunrise/pseuds/Miasunrise
Summary: About half-way through his coffee, Jou starts to accept that he isn't dreaming. Which means there is a real, actual, one-hundred percent bonafide baby Blue Eyes White Dragon sitting on his kitchen table.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I DON'T EVEN GO HERE. 
> 
> It's 2019 what am I doing... I hope someone needed this flavour of joukai as badly as I apparently did.
> 
> No intense critique please. I'm writing these chapters pretty fast, and only for fun. I just needed to write about Kaiba being wooed. That's basically where this is going. Fuck me. :')

Jounouchi Katsuya had accepted a long time ago that there's shit in this world that he can't explain. The Shadow Realm, for one; Yuugi and the spirit that lives with him, for two. 

Basically, magic is real and Jounouchi has learned to be chill about it. 

It's not like he's a particularly logical guy. He goes with his gut pretty much all the time. Intuition and vibes have never let him down. Magic is probably the same deal, he figures, so why get bent outta shape over it?

It isn't that weird, then, when he wakes up to the sound of his alarm at 6:30 am to find a pair of blue dragon-eyes blinking at him from the end of his bed. 

At first he thinks he's dreaming. He's dreamt about the Blue Eyes White Dragon before, though it’s been awhile since he'd had a dream like that. And the Blue Eyes at the foot of his bed isn't big like the one that tries to eat him in his dreams.

It's tiny. It's about the size of a house cat. 

Whatever. This is better than being lit on fire while Seto Kaiba cackles in the background.

"Hey there, little guy," Jounouchi says as he sits up in his bed.

The dragon growls at him.

"Uh." He wipes at his eyes, trying to wake himself up. "Little girl?"

The dragon snorts her approval. 

"Right, cool..." Jou sets his feet on the floor, sitting on his bed and staring at his uninvited guest. Does Kaiba know one of his three Blue Eyes is a girl? And how is Jounouchi so sure this is Kaiba's card specifically? He can't say. It's just a gut feeling he has, and what other Blue Eyes does he ever dream about anyway? "I guess I'll go make coffee. Might as well enjoy myself, it's my weird-ass dream." He stands up but stops at the door of his bedroom. "You comin'?"

The small white dragon lifts her eyes up, looking at Jounouchi with flat indifference. It's a familiar look. 

"Up to you," he says with a yawn, leaving his bedroom.

He hears the soft pounding of wings as the monster eventually follows him.

His apartment is shabby, he'd be the first to admit that. He doesn't make a lot of money and he thinks, even if he did, he'd never live somewhere too flashy. The wallpaper looks extra-ripped in his dream, though. Rude.

Yawning again, Jounouchi hits start on his coffee machine and waits while the drip does its thing. 

He feels something watching him, eyeing him intensely.

Turning his head, he can see the small white dragon peering at him. She’s almost squinting, as if she’s judging him for his Western habit. 

“What?” Jounouchi says, turning to look at her and folding his arms. “You never seen coffee before or somethin’?”

She turns her nose up at him, closing her eyes, clearly too good for his plebeian ways.

“Sheesh.”

What does a dream-dragon care? Jounouchi can't help it; coffee's his life-blood, especially now that he's out of school and working full time. And trying to maintain some kind of duelling career on top of that.

Sitting, he starts sipping at his drink and sets his chin in his hand, yawning again. He's never been much of a morning person. The small white dragon flies over, setting herself down neatly onto the rickety kitchen table. She looks over at him, her blue eyes familiar in a way Jounouchi chooses to ignore. 

About half-way through his coffee, he starts to accept that he isn't dreaming.

Which means there is a real, actual, one-hundred percent bonafide baby Blue Eyes White Dragon sitting on his kitchen table.

"Huh," Jounouchi says, holding his mug out towards her lazily, "Alright, buster. Where'd you come from? What'd'ya want? This is some Shadow Realm thing, right?"

She narrows her eyes at him, as if calling him a dumbass with nothing but her gaze and bared teeth.

“Did you come here just to _ judge _ me?”

The white dragon opens her mouth wide and lets out a cheerful roar, not deep or menacing at all. It's a cute noise, like she honestly believes she’s all powerful and terrifying.

"Oh yeah you're tough," he says, rolling his eyes at the monster. "Maybe try again in a few hundred years, when you're not the size of a cat." 

More importantly, what should he do? If this _ is _ some Shadow Realm magic, he probably needs to call Yuugi. Or Yami. Or both, he guesses.

He pulls out his phone, narrowing his eyes at the dragon. “Don’t you try anything,” he says.

The Blue Eyes merely blinks at him.

"Hey Jounouchi, what's up?" Yuugi says as he answers the phone.

"Well, you're not gonna believe this, but..."

Yuugi does, in fact, believe him. 

After a few beats of silence, in which Jounouchi can only assume Yuugi and Yami are talking to each other, his friend finally replies, "You know, Jounouchi? You should give Kaiba a call."

"What! That creep?"

"It's his favourite card. If anyone's going to have a connection to it, it's him." 

"She does act like him," Jounouchi says, giving her the stink-eye. "She hasn't stopped giving me disapproving glares since I woke up. If she could talk, man I'm _ sure _ she'd tell me how stupid I am."

Yuugi laughs. 

"Hey!"

"Sorry Jou, but that's pretty funny."

He thanks Yuugi and says goodbye, ending the call. 

He does have Kaiba's number somewhere in his phone. They'd all traded numbers at some point for convenience's sake when they'd been dealing with life-or-death stuff and communication helped put a tick in the 'living' column of possible outcomes.

What's the worst that could happen? Jounouchi's not a teenager anymore - when Kaiba makes fun of him now, it rolls right off his back. For the most part.

He searches through his contacts until he finds Kaiba's name (its surrounded by the money-bag emoticon which he’d done in front of Kaiba when adding him to his phone just to be an asshole), and hits 'call.'

The call ends before it even rings twice.

"Such a fuckin' jerk," Jounouchi says, glaring at the dragon. "What’s his problem? Jeeze. You know I saved his life? _More_ than once." She tilts her head at him, but Jounouchi doesn’t go into detail.

Frowning, he dial's Mokuba's number. He should’ve done that in the first place but some small, pathetic, stupid part of him thought maybe, after everything, Kaiba would pick up the phone if it was him calling.

"Hey."

"Mokuba, is your asshole of a brother there?"

"Don't call him that."

Jou grins. “But you don’t deny that he is, in fact, an asshole.”

"Be nice," Mokuba says. 

“What? I’m not the one who needs to hear that.”

“Sure, Jou. You want me to put him on?”

"Yes, please."

The phone is shifted around, there's some vague arguing as Mokuba tells his older brother not to be so stingy, and then a rough voice is snapping at him through the line. 

"_What_."

Jounouchi grips his phone tighter. "Care to explain to me why your dragon is alive and breathing fire all over my kitchen, asshat?" The latter part isn’t true, but she might start at any second going by the looks she’s been giving him.

There's no reply for a beat. When he does speak, Kaiba's voice is distant as if he's turned his head away from the phone. "Mokuba, I think Jounouchi's having a stroke, call an ambulance."

"Like you'd bother," Jounouchi says, rolling his eyes.

"What do you want?"

"Yuugi told me to call you-"

"You always do what you're told?"

"You _ know _ I don't."

"Too stupid to follow directions."

"One of the many ways I am, in fact, _not a dog_." He leans back against the kitchen counter, watching the small blue-eyes as it looks around the room. He can practically hear her thinking, judging him for his shabby appliances and the sink full of dishes, and the toaster he has lying on its side. He'd wanted mini pizzas and he was too lazy to use the oven. "Anyway, look- Your blue-eyes is in my house, Kaiba, _judging_ me. Come― take it away, or whatever."

".....Stop wasting my time, dumbass." 

The line goes dead.

"Kaiba!" Nothing. "Fuck." 

To be fair, Jounouchi probably wouldn't believe him either, if their situations were reversed. If anything, he’d assume Kaiba was screwing with him for fun. 

Well, only one way to prove it to him.

"Hey," he says, looking at the Blue Eyes, "Come with me."

The dragon does not budge.

Jounouchi glares at her. "Don't be like that," he says, "We could get along, you know. I like dragons." She eyes him skeptically. "Really, I do. I think they're great." Nothing. "Look, just because your― what, owner? Master?" She just stares at him, unamused, so Jounouchi continues, "Just because Kaiba wants to light me on fire doesn't mean we can't be buds, okay? How about it? You want something to eat? I've got meat in here somewhere..."

After feeding her, the Blue Eyes warms up to him a bit. At least she stops looking at him like he's some sort of walking infectious disease, which is farther than he's ever gotten with Kaiba in all the years he’s known him.

"You ever ride a motorbike?" He asks as he finishes washing the dishes, including the plate of chicken she'd eaten from. The dragon only blinks at him. "Well, get ready."

\--

The Blue Eyes absolutely loves it. As soon as they're on the highway, going top speed, she climbs up onto his shoulders and spreads her wings wide. Her talons dig into his skin and yeah, sure, it hurts a bit ― but it's worth it when he hears her roar. Being just a baby, maybe she's never flown high and fast before. 

Kaiba Corp is only a fifteen minute ride away. He's pretty sure that's where the asshat is.

It's not like Jounouchi comes over here a lot, but the security guards know him. He's best friends with the King of Games, and maybe that counts for something. That, or the real, actual, mini version of a Blue Eyes White Dragon on his shoulders has everyone stumped. Who knows.

Either way, he takes the main lobby elevator up to Kaiba's study. He'd texted Mokuba to double check his location. Jounouchi punches in the key-codes he needs to get in ― information again they'd shared long ago to ensure mutual safety ― funny that Kaiba had never changed the numbers.

He doesn't knock on his large oak study door. Instead, Jounouchi kicks it open with the flat of his foot, hands shoved into his pockets and white dragon roaring happily on his shoulders as he snaps, "Kaiba you big jerk! Don't hang up on me!!"

From his desk Kaiba frowns at him. "What..." But his gaze lands on the dragon, and his words stop short.

Scowling, Jounouchi stomps into the room, kicking the door shut behind him. "I told ya, your dragon came to life and showed up in my apartment! She's just like you! All high and mighty and stuffy, and judging my toaster...."

"What?"

"But I think we're cool now," Jounouchi says, looking up at her blue eyes as she looks down at him. "But that isn't the point. Uh." He stutters, because Kaiba is standing up and making his way over. He's wearing casual clothes. Does he normally do that at work? But he looks at stiff as ever.

Stopping in front of him, Kaiba looks both him and the dragon up and down. 

He doesn't look angry. He doesn't look worried, either, or irritated or sad or anything like that. Jounouchi's been trying to figure Kaiba Seto out since he met the guy, and studying his expressions is a useless endeavour, but he's pretty sure he knows what's up. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. There are really only three things Kaiba cares about: his little brother, his business, and his Blue Eyes White Dragons.

"She's um, she's pretty friendly, if you want..." Jou nods up at the dragon.

Slowly, Kaiba reaches a hand out. Without hesitating the Blue Eyes nuzzles at his palm, growling contently.

"Did you do this?" Kaiba asks, his eyes locked onto the dragon. 

"What?" Jounouchi looks away. Kaiba's taller than him and he doesn't need to be reminded. "Man, no. I wouldn't know how."

"This is a dream," Kaiba says, scratching at the top of her rough head, "I'm asleep."

Jounouchi cracks a grin. "You dream about me often, Kaiba?"

Kaiba gives him a flat look. "It can't be real," he says, dropping his hand. Jounouchi watches it curl into a fist. "It's a simulation. Maybe one of your disks went haywire."

"Naw, I don't keep 'em in the apartment. Theft's a pretty big issue on my side of town. They're at the game shop. Besides, you can feel her, can't you?"

"How do you know it's a girl?"

"Uh. I asked, I guess. Right?" The dragon lets out a happy growl. "See?"

“She can’t be real.”

Jou raises his brow at the other man. “Don’t you remember the Shadow Realm? The spirit that lives inside Yuugi? And the one inside Bakura? And all that crazy ancient Egyptian shit?” He says, waving his hands around to punctuate just how insane their lives had been in the past, “We’ve been through weirder things.” 

“Don’t patronize me, you useless mutt. Of course I remember.”

Jounouchi glares at him. “Well then how come _she_,” he points at the dragon with his thumb, “can’t be real?”

Kaiba gives him a bored stare, but Jounouchi can read this one because he knows it really, really well: he’s annoyed. Easy.

“Because, you idiot, the real Blue Eyes isn’t this small, and it wouldn’t be friendly, and it wouldn’t show up in your home.”

“What, you think it’d show up at your place?” Jounouchi makes a pshaaw sound, one that’s undignified and indignant and totally pisses Kaiba off, makes his bored expression twist into a dark frown, which Jou only finds hilarious. “Naw. She’s got good tastes, man.”

The dragon preens, holding her head high like a proud bird. 

“Clearly not, if she’s with you.”

“Your insults are getting pretty uncreative there, Kaiba,” Jounouchi says, smiling slightly. Still on his shoulders, the Blue Eyes huffs. Her breath is warm on the top of his head. “See? She thinks I’m cool.”

“You probably brainwashed her.”

Jounouchi looks up at the dragon, who looks down at him. Smiling, he looks back at Kaiba as he nods once. “Yeah. With food. And a pretty sweet ride in on my bike.”

Kaiba stares at him wordlessly, his mouth hung open slightly. “You let the public see it?”

“Relax. They just think she’s a hologram anyway, right? Probably?” Jounouchi watches Kaiba’s face shift back into a flat frown. “What’d you want me to do, shove her in a box? She’s a living thing, ya jerk, not doin’ that to her.”

“What did Yuugi say when you called him?”

“He thinks she’s yours.”

“Hm?”

“Like your card. One of them, anyway.” A sudden thought strikes him. “Do you think the other two are gonna show up?” Jounouchi’s eyes widen with mild horror and he looks up at the dragon. She looks down at him and blinks once, slowly. “Oh god. If I have three of these guys living with me, you’re gonna have to start paying child support. I can’t afford to feed three mystical dragons on my salary.”

“Would you shut up, you stupid...” Kaiba trails off, rubbing his temples. “I need to focus.”

Jounouchi rolls his eyes. He looks at the serious expression Kaiba’s got eating at his face, and the tired lines under his eyes. He probably pulled an all-nighter for work. He does it a lot. Jounouchi assumes he does it a lot. He doesn’t actually know.

Nudging the taller man, he grins. “What, too distracted by my good looks?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

"The only thing I'm distracted by, Jounouchi, is your annoying voice grating at my ears. Now shut up and let me think."

"I'll have you know plenty of ladies think my voice is damn sexy, Kaiba," he snaps with an irritated frown.

"Why don't you go bother them, then?"

Jou's brows furrow deeper, frustration boiling over, unable to help it. "Because _ they're _ not the ones who set a dragon loose in my apartment!"

Kaiba closes his eyes. "Stop shouting."

"Stop being― you," Jou says. 

"How eloquent. Your prowess of language truly is astonishing." Kaiba smirks as he adds, "Oh sorry, I used some big words there. Need me to define them for you?"

"Kaiba, I swear to god, I'm gonna kill you."

"I'd like to see you try."

"Careful what you wish for."

"Is that a threat?"

Jou yanks at his hair. Somehow, the conversation turned darker than he'd intended; Kaiba just rubs him the wrong way - all the goddamn time. "No, you freakin' asshole. Will you just stop?"

"I'm the one who asked you to shut up."

"Fine! I’ll shut up, then." Jou clamps his mouth shut, folds his arms, and does just that, glaring at the brunet. He feels words trying to spill over and out of his mouth, but he bites them back. 

Kaiba doesn’t reply, only glares across the room at the wall. 

A solid three minutes of silence goes by. The Blue Eyes on his shoulders is oddly still, and Jou distracts himself by staring at the place where the wall meets the ceiling, wondering if Kaiba actually does sleep in his office or not. Heh - maybe he just plugs himself in at night like an actual, literal robot.

"Uhh...." Jou starts after the fourth minute goes by.

Kaiba says, "I could probably use this."

"What'd'ya mean?"

"For my business. Real life duel monsters would be an instant hit."

"Kaiba, you gigantic corporate dumbass― Is _that_ what you were thinkin' about?" Brown eyes widen and Jou takes a step towards the taller man. "FIRST of all, it's a living thing, not a- a product. Second, haven't you ever seen Jurassic Park, man?" Jou waves his hands around, trying to get his point across. "Not a good idea."

"As if you know anything about marketing."

"Maybe not, but you know what I do know somethin' about?" Jou pauses for effect, watching the way Kaiba watches him. "_Staying alive_."

Kaiba makes a noise ― one that's almost soft and might be, if Jou didn't know any better, a laugh. He might be smiling too, a small subdued one. 

Naw. No way.

"I've seen you get yourself sent to the Shadow Realm on at least three separate occasions," Kaiba says, looking up at the dragon still perched on Jou’s shoulders. They’re standing a few feet apart, but still close enough for Kaiba to reach out and pet the Blue Eyes; closer than Jou is comfortable with. "Yuugi Mutou is the only reason you're alive."

"One of those times I was savin' your little brother! You were a jerk about it then and you're still―" He groans in frustration, yanking at his hair again. Why does he let Kaiba get to him? Wasn’t he supposed to be over it since they’re not teenagers anymore? Kaiba doesn't care about anything except for that tight circle he's got around him: his work and his little brother. Jou shouldn't react at all. There's nothing to react to. "Know what? Whatever," Jou says, dropping his arms to his sides and letting out a slow, heavy breath of air. "You're not worth the energy."

As soon as he’s done talking, the Blue Eyes lifts herself from his shoulders. She hovers over to Kaiba, smacking Jou in the face with her tail as she goes.

“Hey!” Jou rubs at his cheek. “What’d I do?”

Stopping just in front of Kaiba, she lets herself drop.

Jou is sure that bastard's gonna let the dragon fall to the ground, Blue Eyes or no, just because Jou had been the one to bring her over. 

But Kaiba catches it easily in his arms. His eyes go a little wide, just like they had before when he’d first landed his gaze on the Blue Eyes; soft around their edges. It’s not something Jounouchi's never seen before ― it’s the same way he looks at Mokuba.

Jou takes a second to scramble his thoughts together. "I guess she likes you." He smirks. "There really is a first for everything."

"Huh?" 

Kaiba isn't listening. He's not even looking at Jou. He's got his gaze fixed on the Blue Eyes curled up in his arms, his lips pressed into a thin line.

"You know, someone liking you," Jou says. But the insult falls flat. His voice had gone weird and Kaiba only hums back at him, still staring down at the white dragon.

Normally Jou hates it when Kaiba ignores him, but he's kinda glad right now. He doesn't think he'd know what to do if Kaiba looked at him the way he's looking at that Blue Eyes.

"You alright there?"

Seeming to snap out of it, Kaiba jerks his head up and glares that familiar, icy glare at Jou. "Get out of my office, Jounouchi."

"Don't you think we gotta―"

"_We_ don't have to do anything." Kaiba holds a hand up over the intercom machine on his desk, raising his brow at the blond. "Get out. Before I call security and have you dragged out like the pathetic dog you are."

"Sheesh," Jou says, holding his hands up defensively. He can take Kaiba's guards any damn day of the week ― but he's not gonna stick around where he's not wanted. "Alright, I'll get lost. But I stand by what I said, we gotta figure this out." With that he turns on his heels, heading towards the giant oak doors that exit Kaiba's office. He doesn't hear a reply from the brunet; probably he's just glad that Jou's leaving.

But what he _does_ hear is the strong flap of wings.

The Blue Eyes lands on his shoulders, claws digging in. It hurts but he's getting kind of used to it, kind of familiar with the shape and press of those sharp talons.

"Oh, you comin' with me?" 

She growls at him, not happily exactly... More like she's trying to tell him he's forgetting something. Jou can't think of what. The only thing he wants to forget right now is Kaiba's stupid face and his bad attitude.

Jou waves a lazy hand over his head as he leaves. 

* * *

Glaring, Kaiba watches Jounouchi leave.

He decides, then, that he'll spend that evening in his penthouse just off the coast. It's where he goes to clear his head, which he doesn't often bother to do at all but recent events call for it. He's got a big deal to close with a few foreign investors and everything needs to go perfectly.

No room for distractions.

He packs only his laptop, having everything else he needs at the penthouse already, and sends Mokuba a text so he won’t think Kaiba’s spending the night in his office, again, and give him a hard time about it. He doesn’t work overnight often, but Mokuba’s got worrying down to a science these days. He’s graduating high school in three months and ― as emotionally unaware as Kaiba knows he can be ― even _he_ can guess that that may have some relevance.

Not wanting to dwell on future inevitabilities, he leaves his office. He can work idly on reports into the evening, and start again in the morning -- all with no possibility of uninvited guests.

The penthouse is as open and calming as it always is. He only has memories of Mokuba and himself here -- nothing of their father.

Kaiba has a hard time falling asleep that night, even with the sea breeze wafting through the master bedroom. His vision is filled with red and he can’t remember it, but he dreams.

\--

Sitting up the next morning, Kaiba tosses the covers off and lets his feet hit the cool floor. He’s never one for slow, relaxing wake-ups.

Regardless of his restless night, he still has work to do. The laptop’s in the kitchen, he’s sure there are jasmine tea leaves in the cupboard courtesy of Mokuba who knows Kaiba comes here on his off days, and he can sit by the window that overlooks the Japanese sea.

He has to send the foreign inventors various reports, which need to be typed up and translated by noon. He'd gotten a great deal of it finished yesterday, but not as much as he normally would have. 

A low grumble makes Kaiba turn his head with a snap.

Sitting on top of the windowsill, just as proud as it pleases, is a small Red Eyes Black Dragon. 

Kaiba frowns at it. 

"No," he says out loud by way of protesting the general will of the universe.

This is not happening. 

Yesterday afternoon hadn’t happened, either.

He’d fallen ill and this was all one long, incredibly annoying fever dream.

The Red Eyes swishes its tail back and forth, still asleep in the morning sun. 

Kaiba had thought he’d left all that Shadow Magic shit behind, thought it was over after Yuugi finally got himself sorted out. 

“Hey,” Kaiba says, still frowning; he’s not sure talking to it is a good idea but seems unable to stop himself from taunting the small dragon, “Wake up.”

Two red eyes blink open, the light clearly stinging. The sharp edges of the tiny beast’s face gleam in the sun. It’s nothing Kaiba hadn’t already seen on the card and hologram, but there is something fascinating about seeing it in perfect reality. 

The dragon growls at him once it’s awake. It’s up on its haunches the second it realizes Kaiba's staring at it. 

Without further warning the small monster flaps its wings and is up in the air. 

“No,” Kaiba says again, curling his hands into fists. 

The small dragon dashes towards the other side of the room, knocking three glass vases from the dresser. They shatter on the cherrywood floor into a million shards. The sound is loud but it's nothing compared to the roar the small beast lets out. It's almost gleeful, almost sarcastic, and it almost reminds him of-

No one.

Kaiba gets up out of the bed. He steps around the glass carefully, and tries to get his hands on the dragon.

It dodges low and circles back, its claws tearing into the ceiling as it soars along it upside down. It’s red eyes are wide and bright.

"Stop it," Kaiba says, turning around as the beast flies to the other side of the room.

It ignores him with what he thinks is a snicker, if monsters could make such a noise. The Red Eyes dashes across the room again, landing on a mantle. As it folds them back into its black body, its wings knock a few antique duel-monster figures over. They shatter onto the floor just like the vases had. 

Kaiba looks at the destruction and frowns.

It doesn't appear to be the monster's goal to destroy Kaiba's things. Instead, it seems if the small dragon doesn't realize what it's doing, doesn't understand that it doesn't fit in the small space of Kaiba's bedroom with its wide wings. 

It looks like the Red Eyes is trying to start some kind of game of chase.

Kaiba will not oblige.

"Hey," he tries, taking a careful step towards the dragon. "Just... stay still, will you?"

Two red eyes gleam at him, all passion and anticipation and full-readiness. As soon as Kaiba's about to touch it, his finger tips just grazing rough black scales, the dragon does a triple backflip up into the air.

It lands on his bed. 

“Stop,” he tries again.

In seconds it burrows its way under the covers, claws and teeth tearing the fabric apart.

“For fuck's sake…”

A few short snorts of fire burn holes through the mattress. The Red Eyes buries itself in torn blankets and ash and stops to settle there, its breathing evening out until it’s nothing but soft, peaceful snores. 

Had it played itself out?

Kaiba frowns at the lump under his covers. He folds his arms, and closes his eyes. It’ll be nothing to have a servant come in and clean the room, and he hadn’t been particularly attached to the glass figures it had broken.

That isn’t the problem.

He calls Yuugi Mutou, because he isn't sure what else to do. 

"Kaiba?"

"Yuugi."

“Hey.” A long pause wherein Yuugi is waiting for Kaiba to explain himself. “Uh. What's up?”

"..."

Yuugi laughs through the line. "I might be the King of Games but not even _ I _ could guess what goes on in the mind of Kaiba Seto." There’s another pause. "You're going to have to tell me."

Kaiba hears the dragon snuffling under his bed covers and says, “I want to talk to the other you.”

"We're both here all the time." Yuugi sighs, but it's a fond sort of sound, not irritated. Kaiba doesn't want to care at all. "Now, what do you want?"

“What do you know about cards that come into our world from the Shadow Realm?” 

“What do you mean?” Yuugi asks it as if he knows exactly what he means ― which he probably does. Jounouchi had called Yuugi yesterday for a similar reason.

Kaiba doesn’t keep the bite out of his voice. “There is a dragon attempting to burn my bedroom to the ground.”

“Huh. _ Which _ dragon, exactly?”

“Don’t get smart with me, Yuugi.”

Yuugi laughs. “I don’t know what to tell you. What do you want to hear?”

Kaiba hangs up on him. He barely registers the action. His thumb hits the ‘end call’ button and he sets the phone down on his bed.

He sees a text come through, though, and does read it.

_ I’ll look into it. _

Kaiba is no stranger to the metaphors and magic of the Shadow Realm, but that doesn't mean it means anything. This dragon could've shown up for any number of reasons. The Blue Eyes as well.

Whatever. He has work to do. If the beast wants to sleep in his bed, fine. Kaiba will sort it out later.

Clenching his jaw, he heads out into the bright kitchen.

He’s not fifteen minutes into his work before he hears rattling from down the hall. Closing his eyes, he tries to ignore it. Let the dragon tear up his room. As long as he doesn’t literally burn the place down, Kaiba doesn’t care. 

Like a bullet the Red Eyes comes blasting down the hallway. A trail of smoke and fire follows it. 

It crashes into the wide oak kitchen table, skidding across its surface and knocking Kaiba’s tea and laptop over the edge and onto the floor. Hot jasmine splashes everywhere, burning his bare feet and making him shout.

He glares ice at the small Red Eyes, who is lying on its back on the table, looking perplexed as to how it even got there. 

He gets a flash of honey-brown.

Clenching his jaw, Kaiba stands up in a rush. He reaches out, meaning to grab at the damn dragon, but it leaps out of the way.

"Stay still."

The Red Eyes flashes rows of razor sharp teeth at him, some monstrous imitation of a grin. Kaiba stares at it, a bit bewildered at the sight. 

Without any warning, the small dragon shoots up into the air and blasts through the screen door of the lanai, breaking a hole clean through it, and flies off into the sunrise.

Kaiba grinds his teeth. 

He can’t let that thing out in public on its own.

\--

Kaiba drives downtown, following the Red Eyes as it soars above Domino City. He swerves around cars and goes the wrong way down streets, but the citizens of Domino all know him and he’s got a net-worth of 7.8 billion yen and keeps this city's economy alive so no one is going to stop him from breaking any rules, which is exactly how he likes it. 

The Red Eyes flies all the way to the park downtown. Kaiba stops his car part-way on the sidewalk and steps out, watching as the small dragon does spirals over a blossomed apple tree. Plenty of park patrons stare on in amazement. A few kids shout, cheering the dragon on and exclaiming their amazement at its presence. _ It's a real Red Eyes, mom, look! _

Brow set heavy, Kaiba stomps on to the grassy park. 

The Red Eyes is steadily lowering itself, diving behind a tall cherry tree.

When he walks around it, Kaiba sees the dragon’s target and can’t say he’s surprised.

Jounouchi.

"Woah!" His bright voice seems to rival the sun, which Kaiba has always had a bit of a distaste for. "Oh. Oh man!" Jounouchi turns on his heels in that casual way he does everything and gawks at the black dragon.

The Blue Eyes is perched on his shoulder, looking irritated.

"No freaking way! Baby Red Eyes!" He holds his arms out, and the black dragon flies into them. He curls up against Jounouchi's chest and hums out a content growl. "This must be my lucky day!" He grins down at the black bundle in his arms.

Kaiba clears his throat.

Brown eyes leap up to him.

"Oh. And there's the catch." He looks wryly at the dragon in his arms and says, "You just had to bring him along, huh?" Then he looks back at Kaiba, his tone casual. "Hey, moneybags."

Kaiba frowns. "We need to get out of here. People are staring. Why are you out in public with that?"

"Don't call her 'that' ya cold jerk. She likes you, you know," Jounouchi says, a small smirk at his lips, "And she's _ just _ like you ― except she doesn't mind my company." When Kaiba doesn't respond, he continues, "Besides, I could ask you the same thing." Jounouchi looks down at the Red Eyes curled up against his chest. "When'd this guy show up?"

"Never mind that," Kaiba snaps, looking at the pedestrians around them, "We need to―"

A news reporter cuts him off as a crowd of people slowly make their way over. This is exactly what Kaiba did not want. The general public isn't ready to know the possibilities of the Shadow Realm. There is a simple lie he could tell to lead them astray, but despite himself he’s never actually been decent at outright lying. He can mislead easily enough, can withhold information without so much as a blink. But lying is different. He is too accustomed to saying exactly what he thinks to be any good at it.

"Yeah," Jounouchi starts, answering the awe-truck looks of the crowd. He steps in close to Kaiba to speak into the microphone the reporter has shoved near his face. "Pretty sweet holograms, right?"

The reporter blinks. "So they _ are _ holograms?"

"'Course!" Jounouchi grins and wipes at his face, some other casual gesture he does often enough to be annoying. "What, did ya think they were real? Not even Kaiba here could pull that off." He nudges Kaiba who only reacts with a blank expression. He closes his eyes and lets Jounouchi continue. "They're ah… um… They're new tech Kaiba here is workin' on! And I was nice enough to help him out. They're highly uh…autom, atun…."

"Autonomous," Kaiba supplies, eyes still shut. 

"Yeah! That," Jounouchi says with a snap of his fingers. "So they got away from us. We're uh- we’re heading to the game shop to test ‘em out. Updates to follow," he finishes with a serious nod.

“Interesting,” the reporter says, and opens her mouth to ask some kind of followup, “Are y-”

"Let's go, moneybags," Jounouchi says, cutting the reporter off. 

Kaiba feels a hand wrap around his wrist, pulling. It's warm and it's strong and the feeling goes all the way to his toes.

He glares hard at Jounouchi, ripping his hand free.

"Right," the blonde says, letting his hand fall to his side. The other is holding the Red Eyes against his chest, while the Blue Eyes is still perched condescendingly on his shoulders. Kaiba looks away, glaring off into the distance. "Lead the way," Jounouchi says.

The brunet turns and heads back to his car, annoyed to hear the pounding sound of worn sneakers following him.

"You realize," Kaiba starts once they're inside his car, "that now we have to actually go to the game shop."

Jounouchi shrugs from the passenger seat. The Red Eyes gets comfortable on his lap while the Blue Eyes lies down in the back, giving the black dragon a wary look.

"That's alright. We can use the time to try and figure this out."

"You've also now promised something to the public I have no way to deliver."

"What? You could totally make hyper-realistic, _ autonomous _ duel monsters. Put that big Kaiba brain to work."

Kaiba doesn't respond to that. "Isn't the game shop closed today?"

"I got a spare key." He fishes it out of his pocket. "Best friend privileges. But don't tell anyone. I'll get robbed for sure. And it might seem like peanuts to you, but that's Yuugi's family's livelihood."

"I wouldn't," Kaiba says because it's true. He has no interest in ruining anyone's life, least of all Yuugi Mutou's.

"Yeah, guess that's not your style."

They drive in silence to the shop. Kaiba would like to return home, he has those reports to write for the foreign investors, but he has a feeling that this problem isn't going to disappear on its own. And as much as he loathes the Shadow Realm and all the fate and destiny bullshit that had come with it ― he knows it can be dangerous if left unchecked.

He probably would just ignore it, if it were only himself involved.

"Come on in, your highness," Jounouchi says with an over-exaggerated bow, holding the back door of the shop open. Kaiba takes a long look at him, and then snorts out something dangerously close to a laugh.

He walks in with his head held high, the two dragons flying in after him. He's not unaware of his personality and it is funny, he thinks, when his brother makes fun of him for being so…. him. So why can't it be funny when Jounouchi does it?

It's nothing.

"Alright, here we are," the blonde says, flipping on a few lights behind the counter. "Now… Kaiba, richest and biggest asshole in all of Japan - nay, maybe in all of the world - What do we do with these guys?"

Just as he asks it, the Red Eyes tackles the white dragon straight out of the air. They tumble in a heap on the floor, all claws and teeth and growling. Kaiba sees a spark of white lightning. 

"Do something, you useless dog."

"Don't bark orders at me, Kaiba. I ain't one of your servants."

"They're going to hurt each other."

"Naw," Jounouchi says, shaking his head with an easy smile, "they're playing." 

"What?"

"They like each other." Jounouchi is smiling down at them. Then he looks over at Kaiba, his expression a bit blank. "Can't you tell?"

Kaiba cannot, but he doesn't say so.

Turns out he doesn't have to.

"I mean, you know how strong these guys are. Even at this size, if this was a real fight… the whole place would be on fire."

Frowning, Kaiba lets himself look at the two dragons, white and black, rolling around on the worn wooden floor.

The Blue Eyes sends a small burst of white lightning into the black dragon’s side, who in turn leaps and pins the white dragon down, biting at its head. There's no blood. No claw marks. No sounds of pain. And the growls are… playful.

“Just because they're picking on each other doesn't mean they don't like each other.”

Kaiba goes rigid.

"I mean, me and Honda? That's pretty much our whole friendship right there."

Kaiba relaxes. Honda, of course.

He feels a bit cold, suddenly. Must be a draft.

"Hey," Kaiba says, looking at the Blue Eyes. She stops fighting and looks up at Kaiba, the black dragon pinned effortlessly under her claws. "Stop. You're too good for that. Come here."

"Rude," Jounouchi says with a frown.

The Blue Eyes lifts her head haughtily and flies over to Kaiba, landing neatly on his shoulders. She bites once at his hair, affectionately, before resting.

Kaiba reaches up and scratches at her head. "Good girl."

"That's kinda creepy."

"Jealous, mutt? Want me to call you a good boy?"

"Aaaand you made it worse." Jounouchi looks away, focusing his gaze on the black dragon. "You can't lose to her,” he says to the Red Eyes, “she'll never let you hear the end of it. Trust me, I know." He gives Kaiba the side-eye.

"Not my fault you're a third-rate duelist."

Jounouchi turns fully towards him, glaring. "I'm the third best duelist in the country, you asshole."

"Which is why you're third rate."

"Arrg!" The blond groans, and Kaiba can't stop the smirk that spreads across his face. "You're the worst."

"No," Kaiba feels the smirk grow wider, "that's you."

"That's it!" Jounouchi announces, pointing a finger at Kaiba and looking down at the black dragon. "Red Eyes? _ Sick _ 'im."

The black dragon looks over at Kaiba, back at Jounouchi, and over at Kaiba again.

It doesn't move.

Kaiba smirks again. "He knows not to challenge an enemy he can't possibly defeat. He's smarter than you are."

"I could kick your ass any day!"

"Past experiences would indicate otherwise."

"Shut up! I’ll duel you right here!"

"I don't have my deck." Kaiba hums, pretending to think for a moment before he speaks again, "But I could probably beat you with a handful of low level cards from this shop."

"Dammit Kaiba! Why do you always gotta piss me off? You’re on, I’ll build you a goddamn deck-"

"I'm not duelling you, you helpless stray dog-"

"Stop calling me a dog!"

Still smirking, Kaiba says, "Would you really prefer good boy?"

"Fuck you!" Jounouchi yells, and he’s starting to sound truly angry. Not that that's ever stopped Kaiba before. "You're such an asshole, you don't have any goddamn friends because you can't be decent to another person for more than five seconds without your brain leaking outta your _ goddamn big ears- _"

"Bold of you to assume I'd last five seconds."

Jounouchi opens his mouth to reply, but stops short. His jaw hangs open until he finds his words. "Did you just… make fun of yourself?"

Kaiba raises one eyebrow at him. "I'm not actually a robot, despite what you might think. I am self aware."

"But…"

Kaiba shrugs. What’s to be surprised about? He’d never have survived his life if he couldn't find humour in the darker parts of his personality. 

The following silence is awkward. He does not attempt to fill it. The dragons are just as quiet; his Blue Eyes sounds as if she’s asleep.

Eventually, Jounouchi speaks up.

"Why do you do that?"

Kaiba looks at him, his expression asking for clarification.

"Piss me off. Get me-" he stutters on the next word and doesn’t complete it. "You do it on purpose. Why?"

"I don't like you."

"If that was true you wouldn't talk to me. I might be a bit slow, but I'm not stupid. Especially not about this stuff."

"I don't like you," Kaiba says again, stressing each word this time. "End of story."

"Uh huh."

"You hate me," he says, flipping the subject around.

Jounouchi looks actually wounded for the first time since they'd started fighting. Kaiba will never understand why friendship and love are always weak spots for Jounouchi, Yuugi, and the others. He could call Jounouchi nothing better than a dead bug on the bottom of his expensive shoe and Jounouchi will simply throw an insult back at him; but if Kaiba calls him a bad friend? Implies that he might hate someone, as per this example? _That's_ crossing the line.

How inane.

The blond bites at the inside of his cheek before replying, seeming to think about his words before he speaks. 

"Naw, I don't," Jounouchi says, and he looks down at the floor where the Red Eyes is half asleep. "I tried but you're too nice to your little brother." He shrugs casually. "I'm weak for that crap." 

Kaiba doesn't respond. His expression stays blank and he looks Jounouchi up and down.

"Anyway, back to my original question―" His voice goes loud, any quiet contemplation lost. At least this is familiar. But then Jounouchi smiles, and maybe it’s not familiar at all. "You get a kick outta pissing me off, don't you?"

Kaiba hardens his flat expression.

"There's no one around to hear you admit it. It's okay. It's okay to have fun-"

"I dislike your company immensely and I don't know what ludicrous ideas you've come up with via your single working brain cell but no part of me finds arguing with you 'fun.'"

"You were smiling."

No reply.

"I think you actually like my company, Kaiba," Jounouchi's tone is brave, sure of itself, "I'm a no-pressure kinda guy and you live a high-pressure lifestyle."

"Shut up."

Brown eyes widen, larger than Kaiba's ever seen them. Jounouchi is seeing something Kaiba does not want him to. He turns away.

“Are you...”

“I'm leaving.”

“Kaiba, wait-”

Again a strong hand wraps around his wrist. Jounouchi's skin is darker, tanned from the sun and from his mixed genetics. Kaiba gets an eyeful of it and looks away.

"Don't touch me."

Jounouchi lets go. "Don't leave."

Despite himself, Kaiba stops in his tracks. His back is to the other man. 

Still on Kaiba's shoulders, the Blue Eyes starts to wake up. She lifts herself off of him and down onto the front counter of the store, yawning softly.

Jounouchi clears his throat, the sound awkward and strained. "You're like a block of ice, man. I'm just… we could be friends, you know? I like talking to you," his voice goes weak, quiet, "Teasing included."

Something warm overtakes him. Kaiba opens his mouth to reply.

But he clamps it shut seconds later, and from behind Jounouchi has no way to know he'd ever opened it or what his face might look like.

Kaiba steels his expression. "I'd rather drown," he snaps, followed by, "And I'm done with this. You can figure it out with Yuugi."

Jounouchi's jaw is clenched tight, no reply forthcoming.

As Kaiba makes his way to the exit, he hears the flutter of wings.

The Red Eyes lands on his left shoulder.

"I don't want you to come with me."

It tilts its head at him.

"Get off."

It shows its teeth, sharp and angular.

"Stay here."

Nothing. It doesn't budge.

"_Fine_," Kaiba snarls, and slams the shop's back door behind him.

* * *

Jou watches him leave, anger and confusion burning in his gut.

He'd opened up and what the _ fuck _ had it gotten him?

Made fun of and ditched. 

But... for a moment he'd swear to god Kaiba's face had been different. For a split second, he'd looked scared. 

Jou just stands there, thinking, watching the empty space Kaiba had left behind. 

Eventually, the Blue Eyes flies up and lands on his shoulders, her sharp claws digging in, and it's all he can feel in the vast silence of the empty game shop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are appreciated! Come yell at me at me here: [[tumblr](https://miasunri.tumblr.com/)] or here: [[twitter](https://twitter.com/Miasunrise1)]


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was just supposed to be me satisfying my need for Jou flirting @ Kaiba, but things kind of ran away on me. He still flirts, Kaiba's just..... Kaiba.
> 
> I am absolutely ignoring that no one in canon actually calls him "Jou." 
> 
> enjoy!

Jounouchi is working on his bike the next day, out in the cool fall sun of Domino City. The Blue Eyes is lounging lazily on the pavement. She keeps sending him death-glares though because she _ had _been preening herself on the warm hood of a car ― but Jou had told her to get off. And, since she’s just as petty as someone else he could name, she hates him forever now.

She huffs dramatically at him for the fiftieth time, and Jou cracks a grin. “Sorry princess, you're gonna have to deal with it. They let me use their shop for free but if we scratch up one of their cars? I’d be shit outta luck.”

She rolls over, scratching her back on that hot pavement and ignoring him.

“I think you’re actually _ more _dramatic than Kaiba.”

A bolt of blue lightning zaps him on the ankle. “Ow!” He rubs at it and frowns at the dragon. “Definitely the biggest drama queen in the whole damn city.” 

Well… maybe not. 

He’s been doing a lot of thinking since yesterday.

The way Kaiba had stormed out of the game shop, his white coat whipping around in a dramatic flourish? ― definitely a typical Kaiba-esque exit. The guy _ lives _ to be extra, Jou would put a good ten-thousand yen bet on that. 

It wasn't the way Kaiba had left that has him thinking, though.

Jou hasn't been able to get that look on his face out of his head. That split second of intense fear. It's not like he's never seen Kaiba look afraid; they've been through a lot of crap, and he can think of a few times where things got bad enough to break through his normally-stoic expression. But nothing even a fraction as bad was going on in the game shop. They'd just been talking.

About... them.

Jou had come on pretty strong. He'd said some stuff he didn't even know he _ wanted _to say.

_ I like talking to you. Teasing included. _

Maybe he kinda... freaked Kaiba out. It doesn't take a damn genius to know the guy's got trust issues.

But he'd meant it. He _ means _ it. Jounouchi likes how riled Kaiba can make him. He likes how the other man crawls right in under his skin and _ stays _ there. No one else affects him like that, no one else makes him half as crazy.

The fighting isn't always fun (sometimes he actually wants to punch Kaiba), but when it is Jou's mouth starts to hurt from grinning so hard, and he can't help but tease Kaiba right back and he _ knows _he's had to clamp his mouth down hard on words that cross that line from insult to suggestion; he knows he's thought more than once about just how much he likes his dark blue eyes. 

It's even kinda fun when Kaiba pisses him off. As long as he's got that smirk on his face ― as long as his eyes flash with that sharp light that means Kaiba's enjoying himself (it's the same light, Jou realizes, that he gets when he's managed to summon his Blue Eyes and _ obliterates _someone with her) ― then it's fun.

Sometimes Jou loses himself in the back-and-forth. In the rhythm of familiar insults. And he thinks that's a bit... overwhelming. But he's learned that the things in life that feel the scariest are the things worth going after. 

Yuugi taught him that.

He wonders if he can shift their interactions around so it's that fun kind of fighting all the time.

Jou thinks he could probably deal with _ that _ in a forever kind of way.

Sucking in a sharp breath, he feels his cheeks go warm. His hands freeze on his bike. The hot mid-afternoon sun beats down on his back, and he focuses in hard on his knuckles as they turn white while he grips the handlebar. His heartbeat thuds against his eardrums, rattling his skull.

He hears the Blue Eyes growl as she stretches out along the black pavement.

“Ah― jeeze,” he says to himself, breathing out a long-held breath. Face still warm, he forces his hands to get back to work. But he thinks about how Kaiba’s taller than him, how he always has been, how he’d stood close both in his office and in the game shop, how Jou felt his gut twist when he’d taken Kaiba’s wrist in his hand, both times. His lips press shut tight and he feels a bead of sweat roll down the side of his head. 

It's not like he didn't already kinda _ know _. It's just embarrassing for his mind to think it so clearly, no objections from any part of him. 

Jounouchi groans and wipes the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. “That’s gotta be enough,” he says, leaning back away from his bike to check out his work. “Should start now.”

The sound of talons scratching against pavement makes him lift his gaze from his bike. 

Jou looks over, and the Blue Eyes is on all fours, her head up and alert. She’s clearly looking and listening for something, scanning far off into the distance. 

“What’s up?” Jou asks, walking around his bike and towards her.

The dragon turns her blue eyes on him and lifts herself into the air. She clamps down on the left strap of his white tanktop and starts yanking, hard. 

Jou trips as she pulls him along, her white wings pounding back air.

“Hey, _ hey!_” He says over her insistent growling. “Wait a sec!” He reaches out and takes both sides of the small dragon, holding her carefully but firmly. He pulls her down to eye-level. “What’s going on? Is something wrong?” He’s dealt with enough Shadow Magic to know not to shrug off something like this.

The Blue Eyes roars, this one deeper than he’s heard before, and her vertical pupils dilate. She looks worried.

“Okay, okay, I can take a hint,” he says, letting her go. “But my bike is faster. You point the way, I’ll drive.”

She leads them ten minutes down the highway, towards the downtown area. Jou takes an exit that leads to a string of apartments just behind the city centre. 

It’s not a bad part of town, exactly, but as a result the cops don't frequent it. He’d come here pretty often back in high school, before he’d met Yuugi. 

The Blue Eyes turns her head towards an on-coming side street, and Jou turns his bike down it. 

After they pass a few homes, the dragon starts pawing at his left hand. Somehow he knows exactly what she means.

Jou pulls the bike over, parking it next to a lamp post on the sidewalk.

The dragon flies just a head of him, leading the way down a dark side street. 

Jou hears someone speaking, hushed and angry, and as they wind around a corner he sees the source.

Even from the back, he knows it's Mokuba.

What’s he doing in this part of town? 

“Moku-”

A large hand grabs the teenager by his forearm. He’s pulled further into the dark alley and Jou's body goes cold with fear. Mokuba’s normally got at least one bodyguard with him, but there's no one else around. Jou doesn’t know what’s going on ― he doesn’t know why Mokuba’s alone in this part of town or who the hell just snatched him ― but he’s not about to stand around asking questions. He breaks into a run, worn sneakers crushing gravel. 

He makes it just in time to see Mokuba be pulled into a car, his face twisted with anger. Jou doesn’t yell for him ― he doesn’t want to alert the kidnappers. Instead he looks up at the Blue Eyes, just above his head, and speaks in a whisper.

“Stay on them,” he says, holding the dragon’s gaze, “Fly high and I can follow you on my bike. Okay?” 

The Blue Eyes nods at him. 

He frowns at her; he can only imagine what these thugs might do with a real Blue Eyes White Dragon ― sell her on the black market or worse ― but he can't let them get away with Mokuba. “Be careful,” he says.

Two dark blue eyes gleam at him, and then the dragon takes off into the air.

Jou races back to his bike, hops on and blasts down the street. He sees the Blue Eyes, 50 feet up in the air, flying towards the highway going east.

Once he’s got sights on the kidnapper's car along the highway, Jou pulls out his phone. 

He’s too focused to realize Kaiba picks up on the first ring.

“What-”

“Kaiba, someone's got Mokuba.”

His voice is cold and eerily calm. “Impossible. Mokuba is at cram school.”

“I saw them grab him, west side of town,” Jou says, speaking slow so he's sure Kaiba can hear him over the motor and the wind. “They've got him in the back of a black SUV.” There's no reply for a few seconds and Jou scowls, feeling his blood boil. “Do you think I'm goddamn _ lying_, Kaiba?! Do you really think I'd lie about somethin' like this?" His voice hikes up a few octaves too high, “What'd'ya think I'm some kinda monster? I swear to _ fuck-_”

“_Alright_.” Kaiba snaps over the line. Then his voice drops low and calculating and maybe he never thought Jou was lying; maybe he was just thinking, “Where are you? Are you on your bike?” He asks in a rush.

“Yeah,” Jou answers, still feeling a bit put off. He looks at the back of the car for plates, but there's nothing. “Heading east on Gaikan, I'm tailing them.” He sees a sharp turn coming up; he doesn't drift on his bike often anymore and isn't sure he should try it now. “Black SUV. East. _ I gotta go_.” 

“Jounouchi.”

He's never heard Kaiba say his name with any amount of emotion, let alone layered with urgency; the sound rings inside his skull. 

But Jou drops his phone, grabbing the handle bars in time to make the sharp turn. The cell lands on his lap but he can't hear anything from it.

The kidnappers stop at an abandoned warehouse near the pier. Jou had pulled his bike over at least 100 yards back, hiding; the Blue Eyes perches herself on an adjacent building, looking like a statue in the afternoon sun.

Jou can see Mokuba standing stock-still; his expression is as dead-set as his older brother's, while one thug holds a gun to his head.

Again, Jou doesn’t waste time thinking about it. Thinking and strategy are important for Duel Monsters, but on the street it's all instinct ― something he, luckily, seems to be naturally good at.

He leaps at the thug, hitting his arm from behind to bend it with a snap, toppling the gun out of his fingers. 

It clatters to the ground. "What the hell-" The thug grabs Jou but Jou gets his feet on the weapon, kicking the firearm as hard as he can. It splashes into the water from the dock.

"You little _ shit_."

"Jounouchi?" Mokuba says, his hard expression vanishing and replaced with shock.

"Hey, Mokuba," he greets, ducking to avoid a fist, "How's things been?"

The thug grunts and sets his arm back, hand fisted, going in for a swift punch. Jou dodges left and swings out one of his own.

He misses, just barely; feels the heat from the thug’s face as his fist ghosts his cheek.

Mokuba's eyes widen, but he doesn’t move from his spot. “How- How are-” He seems to shake himself out of his shock, “How’d you find me?” he asks.

Jou smirks. "Friends in high places, I guess." 

The thug swings at him again. Jou ducks low and sends a punch up under his wide jaw. It makes contact and a loud _ whack! _echoes along the water. When he pulls his fist back Jou's knuckles throb. "Damn you gotta hard head, pal."

The thug grabs two fistfulls of his shirt, dragging Jou up onto his toes. The guy's pretty big. Jou's not sure what he can do ― kicking him in the thighs won't do much, and he's not at the right angle to get him where it counts.

"Get ready to-"

This time, Mokuba jumps out and kicks the guy in the shin. 

"Ow!" The thug falters and drops Jou, glaring at the teenager. "Damn brat!" 

"Nice!" Jou shouts, grinning wide. 

"_Not _my first time being kidnapped," Mokuba says, folding his arms and looking a lot like his brother, his stare deadly and uncompromising. Jou blinks the image away. 

He looks around for a spot of white somewhere, but there’s no sign of the Blue Eyes. Had she gone after Kaiba? Or maybe scouting out the area? It’s fine either way, he can take on one useless goon no problem.

“Mokuba, stay-”

A noise behind them makes them turn their heads.

Two more thugs come running out of the warehouse, their faces grim.

"Shit." Jou scans the three of them. The first guy was big enough but the woman on her way over is bigger, and the third guy's holding a tire iron. "Mokuba,” he starts, keeping his eyes on all three thugs, “You need to get outta here."

"What? No way!" 

"_Now!_" If Jou let anything bad happen he'd never forgive himself, and he knows someone else who'd never forgive him, either. He lowers his fists as the woman gets closer, keeping his defences up. "Look, I dunno what you want with the kid, but if it's ransom money― I'm friends with Kaiba Seto, he'll pay up to save my sorry ass too." He's not so sure about the 'friends' part and Kaiba might be the biggest jerk on the planet ― but he's not gonna let Jou die. At the very least he'll send Yuugi after him. "What'd'ya say?" He grins.

The three thugs laugh, the woman shaking her head.

"Jounouchi, we can take 'em!" Mokuba says, his fists up. "C'mon!"

"Get _ outta _here already!"

Mokuba shakes his head and says, "I'm not leaving you behind, idiot."

With that, he charges in. 

Jou jumps in right after him because if this is how it's going down he's _ not _letting Mokuba fight alone. 

They're alright for a bit, Mokuba is small and quick and seems to know what he's doing. He gets his hands on the tire iron and doesn't have any reservations about trying to beat them in the face with it. Jou lands a few hits in, too, and he almost starts to think they're actually going to make it out alive and not-captured.

In a split second Jou's shoved up against a wall by one thug’s forearm, pressed hard against his throat. His head cracks against cement. The thug grins wide and sick. Struggling to breathe, Jou watches while the other two corner Mokuba, closing in on him like snakes on a mouse.

"Mokuba!" Jou's gut floods with sharp fear. Where the hell is Kaiba? He strains his ears to hear the sound of a helicopter, but nothing comes except the ocean waves lapping against the dock. Fuck. "Stay_ away _from him you goddamn a―"

He's cut off by a flash of white. The Blue Eyes soars down from the sky, her back two feet at the ready. She claws at one thug's head and face, scratching deep through flesh. The guy screams and swats but the Blue Eyes swivels around and attacks the other thug. The one pressing Jou into the wall drops him and heads over, trying to grab the dragon from the air.

"Not happening," Jou says as he lunges out, punching the guy in the temple as hard as he can. The thug falls to the ground. He shakes his hand, knuckles throbbing from the hard hit and says, "Night, asshole."

The other two, cut and bleeding, take one look at the small dragon and then break into a run. They disappear down the dock, around the warehouse.

The dragon growls at them as they go, her blue eyes slitted and alight with a dark fire Jou knows all too well. 

“Woah,” Mokuba says, looking up at the white dragon in obvious awe. “My brother wasn’t kidding…”

Seemingly satisfied that no one else is coming after them, the dragon flies down towards Mokuba. She lands easily on his shoulders, her talons gentle as she holds on. 

Setting her tail around his collar bone with her head on the other side, she wraps her body around him.

Jou would have to be blind not to see that it's protective. 

Mokuba smiles, clearly beside himself with delight, and nudges her head with his cheek. “Thank you,” he says, “I would’ve been toast.”

She growls back at him, nudging his cheek with her head. Mokuba laughs.

Jou takes this opportunity to remind him that he’d nearly been _ kidnapped _ \- or worse. “_Mokuba_,” he turns towards the teenager, “What the hell! Who the fuck were those guys? Why’re you on this side of town alone? Does your brother know-”

"Woah, woah, slow down there, Jou."

"Don't tell me to slow down! You were almost- Did anyone know where you were?" His throat goes dry, "Holy _ shit_, kid."

"I was just visiting a friend."

Jou puts two and two together pretty quick. "I'd say this 'friend' isn't a friend at all. I'm all about trust, but you can't believe everyone you talk to. Your brother is the richest person in the whole damn country." Jou stares down at him, hands on his hips. "People are gonna come after you."

Mokuba looks abashed. “I just... I thought…”

“Where's Isono?”

"He thinks I'm at cram school. I paid someone to sit in for me."

"What? Why?!"

“I don't know.” The call of seagulls fills the air, the sound uplifting and bright; following this Mokuba sighs. “I just... I wanted to be normal for a day.”

For a second inside that sigh Jounouchi sees the little kid Mokuba used to be. Eleven years old and looking up to everyone around him.

He’s never heard Mokuba complain about it before. 

He wonders if it’s always bothered him.

“Look.” Jou drops his hands from his hips, softening his tone as well as his stance. “I'm sure it gets annoying, but... That's how it is, you know? You can't go off on your own.” Mokuba doesn’t reply. “Do you know who those guys were?”

“No. Probably no one.” He looks away, off into the ocean. 

Jounouchi bites at the inside of his cheek until he can’t stand the silence anymore. “Hey.” The black haired teenager looks at him again, and this time his eyes are a little glassy. “You alright?”

“Yeah. Sorry.” The seagulls call out again. Jou wonders if Mokuba has good memories associated with the sound, just like he does. If that’s the reason he keeps pausing to listen. “I just feel stupid.” 

Jou groans with frustration, feeling like an asshole. “You’re not. Just… Holy crap.” He runs a hand through his hair, sweat rolling down the back of his neck. “That could’ve been bad. _ Real _bad, Mokuba.”

“I know. I really thought― I thought he was a friend. It doesn’t matter." He looks away from the ocean, finally, and up at Jou with a small, unsure smile. He bows, only slightly, and says, "Thank you, Jounouchi.”

Jou stares, stunned for a second, before he snorts. “What's with the formality?" He ruffles the kid's head, smiling when Mokuba lifts it to look at him again. "Anytime. Not that I’m lookin’ to repeat it.” 

The teenager seems to shake it off in the same way his older brother shrugs off feelings: quick and exactly. 

Mokuba looks at the white dragon wrapped around his own shoulders, and then up a Jou with an interested smile. “So... you really _ do _have a baby Blue Eyes White Dragon.”

“Sure do,” he says.

The dragon lifts her head to nuzzle under Mokuba's chin, growling. He smiles back at her. “My brother must've lost his mind…” 

“Wouldn't say that.” 

Mokuba laughs, the sound sort of mocking but good-natured. “Trust me,” he says with a wry look, “he was losing his shit.” Mokuba gives the dragon a scratch on her white head.

She growls happily at him again, her tone completely different now that Mokuba isn’t in any immediate danger.

Jou gets stuck watching the scene with a small smile, and has to shake himself out of it mentally. “C’mon. We better get outta here.”

He gives Mokuba his helmet and they're off on his bike, the Blue Eyes still wound around his shoulders.

Jou pulls over a good fifteen minutes away at a local gas station. As long as they're around people, he thinks, they should be fine. He hands Mokuba his phone.

“Call him."

"But..."

Jou shakes his head. “No ‘buts’ little man. As an older brother, I'm telling you to. He's worried. You know it, I know it; call him.”

Mokuba gives the Blue Eyes a forlorn look. She only huffs at him, and nudges the phone in his hand with the tip of her white tail.

Letting out the world’s biggest sigh, Mokuba starts dialling.

Jou can make out Kaiba’s voice on the other end, picking up on the first ring.

“Jounouchi, where the hell-”

“Hi, Seto.”

“Mokuba! What- Where-”

“I'm alright. Jou's here, he found me-” The black haired boy cradles the phone into his ear at whatever reply his brother gives ― Jou can’t hear anymore. But it must be heavy because Mokuba looks sad. “I know, I'm sorry. I know. I ... Can we talk about it later? … Yes. … Yes. … No, I don’t. … Okay.” He holds the phone to Jounouchi. “Seto wants to talk to you.”

Blinking profusely, he puts the phone to his ear. “Hey.”

“Where are you.”

“Oh. Uh, gas station in block 6. The one with the café. You know it?”

The line dies.

Jou looks down at his cell. Shrugging, he shoves it in his pocket. “Guess he'll be here soon.”

“He’s mad.”

“I bet.”

Mokuba leans back against Jou’s bike, settling in to wait. Jou’s glad the kid feels so comfortable around him. There had been times, years ago, when he hadn’t been sure; he wants to be someone Mokuba could look up to. He wants to be that kind of guy.

"So…” Mokuba starts, scratching at the white dragon’s neck. She lifts her head up to make it easier for him to reach, and closes her eyes with a low, content growl. “Does this mean my brother really does have a baby Red Eyes?"

"You haven't seen it?"

Mokuba shakes his head. “He won't let me. I think he's in denial about the whole thing.”

Jou laughs, “Yeah.”

"Any idea what's going on? Talked to Yuugi?"

"Yeah, but Yuugi’s not sure. He gave me some stuff to read.”

“Really?” 

“Yeah, really.”

“Any theories?”

"Naw. I'm no good at this Shadow Realm stuff." Jou breathes out, watching people come in and out of the café. "It'll work out. And she's good company, so I'm not complaining." He flashes his eyes at her an adds, "Bit stuck up, though." 

The Blue Eyes growls and the end of her tail comes out to swipe at him. It nicks him in the ear but it barely stings, and Jou just laughs.

"You guys get along, huh?" Mokuba asks.

"Guess so."

They’re silent for a few minutes after that. It’s the nice kind of quiet, where his mind wanders on nothing in particular. He’s got some stuff to think about, sure, but with Mokuba safe ― with that fear over and done with ― the rest doesn’t seem so serious.

“Jou.”

“Hm?”

Two dark eyes look up at him with an intensity that, like a lot of what Mokuba does, reminds him of Kaiba. But it’s a bit different. A bit brighter, where Kaiba’s is blunt. 

“Do you know why I’m so friendly while my brother's got the emotional scope of a block of ice?”

The blond watches a couple leaving the café, avoiding the way Mokuba's scrutinizing him. “Yeah,” he says, “I do.” He’d done something similar for his sister, taken the brunt of the shit from his father so she could grow up normal. The fighting and the gangs and the strangers at their door demanding money his dad owed for god knows what. He’d kept her from all of it.

He’s not complaining. Shizuka is happy and healthy and eventually Yuugi had come along and taught Jounouchi something he’d never forget, not for the rest of his life. Something that let him find his own kind of happiness.

“My brother's got a good heart.”

Jou feels his throat constrict. “What's with this?” He asks, shoving Mokuba with his hip. The teenager laughs as he stumbles a bit sideways; the dragon growls in annoyance. “I know, already.” Jou goes back to staring at the café. He’s known that for years.

"Just making sure."

Kaiba shows up ten minutes later in his own car, some sporty hybrid Jou can’t place, a few bodyguards in the back. He screeches to a stop a few meters away, his boots tapping on damp pavement as he makes his way over. Jou hears Mokuba sigh and can't help but feel a bit bad for the kid. He deserves whatever wrath is about to come down on him (if Shizuka did something like this he'd lose his goddamn _ mind_) ― but still.

Flying out of the car after Kaiba, the baby Red Eyes makes a beeline for Jou. "Red Eyes!" he catches it his arms, the force knocking him a step back. He hugs the dragon in close, kissing the top of its spiky head. "Good to see you too, buddy."

The Red Eyes growls contently, squirming in his arms with excitement.

Kaiba’s tone cuts through their reunion. "Get in the car."

"Seto-"

"_Get in the car_." He looks at the Blue Eyes wound around his little brother and seems to calm down; Jou watches the lines at the outer corners of his eyes relax. "Let's go."

He turns around, one hand on Mokuba's wrist, and storms off.

Well, it's not like Jou was expecting anything. He's helped save Mokuba before. Kaiba hadn’t had anything nice to say then, either. 

“You wanna come home with me? Change it up?” He cranes his neck to ask the Red Eyes in his arms. The white dragon had left with Mokuba.

But he gives Jou what he can only call a disappointed sigh, and then flies over towards Kaiba’s parked car.

"Aw man."

The Blue Eyes come back over a beat later. She lands on his shoulders, her rear claws digging into his back, and rubs her head against his. "Guess it's still you and me, huh?"

She growls back at him.

\--

"Seto..." Mokuba stops them at the car. He rounds Kaiba, looking up with a worried frown.

Kaiba closes his eyes. "It's fine."

“Is it?”

“Yes.”

Flying over, the Red Eyes grabs two claw-fulls of Kaiba’s sleeve, tugging him backwards.

"Stop that."

The dragon does not. He continues to tug, eyes shut tight with the effort, small growls erupting from its closed jaw.

Mokuba sighs. He slips into the car, not giving Kaiba a second glance. His little brother knows him well enough to know that pressing the issue is counter-productive.

But Mokuba rolls the window and, just to be a little shit, says, "He saved my life." 

“I would've found you.”

“That’s not the point.” Mokuba gives him a look and rolls the window back up. Once the glass is separating them, he turns to face the front windshield and waits.

The Red Eyes growls in Kaiba’s ear. It had stopped pulling at him, seeming to take direction from his brother. It lies itself down on his shoulders, claws digging in.

Kaiba presses fingers into his temples. He can hear Jounouchi climbing onto his bike, a few meters away.

Kaiba had been... panicking. He does not normally panic. But he hadn't known Mokuba was even missing, had been going about his day with a mild headache but without a worry. Then Jounouchi had called and he did not want to believe it, wanted it to be a trick, but he is not the kind of person who would joke about this. The student Mokuba had paid to sit in as him at cram school didn't know anything and Kaiba was left searching through cameras on the side of town Jounouchi had told him about but he couldn't find a trace of either of them and Jounouchi wasn't answering his phone and he'd started to think if Mokuba disappears, if they take him, he could pay for his safe return easily enough but they'd never stop at that, they'd keep him anyway or try to kill him and Kaiba would not stop until he found him but what if he never _ did―_

It is hardly the first time Mokuba had been in danger. Kaiba always finds him.

He closes his eyes, feeling sick.

The dragon sighs deeply, resting its pointy black head on top of his hair; a preferred position, Kaiba is starting to notice. He nips at his hair and Kaiba swats at his tail, not harshly, and he says under his breath, “Alright.”

He turns and walks back towards Jounouchi. 

The blond must hear him, because he turns to look, brown eyes wide. He's sitting on his bike and has to twist his back awkwardly to see.

"This dragon is more annoying than you are," Kaiba says, keeping his tone unfriendly and keeping his distance. "And that is quite a feat."

Jounouchi climbs off of his bike. He stands facing Kaiba, leaning back against it. “Yeah, well.”

The Red Eyes lifts his head and stares at Jounouchi from Kaiba’s shoulders; the blond looks back at it with an indifferent expression.

And that’s it. No insult thrown back at him, no banter. Not even a reaction. 

Kaiba breathes out slowly. "Jounouchi..."

"Yeah?"

"I." Kaiba grinds his teeth, trying to force the words out; he would have saved Mokuba himself; he could have; it would’ve been fine_. That's not the point_. "I appreciate..." He trails off, his head aching once in a heavy throb.

Jounouchi’s blond brows climb up to his messy fringe. "Woah, this is hard for you, huh?" 

Kaiba replies with a flat glare.

“It's cool, Kaiba.” Finally his tone lifts, and he’s grinning. It’s small but it’s there. “Being a Knight in Shining Armour is my specialty.”

“More like an idiot in shining armour,” Kaiba snaps, and does not want to admit to the relief beating at the forefront of his mind.

“Still in armour, still a hero.” Jounouchi winks up at him with a wide, toothy grin.

Kaiba feels something electric run through him. It's loud and sudden and goes straight to chest. He fights to keep the sensation from showing on his face. It is, he thinks, the first time Jounouchi has ever looked at him like that. 

“Actually,” the blond starts when Kaiba doesn’t respond, “It’s not me you should thank." He nods towards where she's sat on his shoulders. "Your Blue Eyes knew something was up and lead me straight to Mokuba.”

He smirks. “Of course.” If this Blue Eyes really is his, then she’d never let any harm come to his brother. Stepping closer, Kaiba reaches out to the white dragon, perched on Jounouchi’s shoulders, and gives her a gentle scratch. “Thank you,” he says.

The two words are oddly rough as they come out. 

Kaiba catches brown eyes that aren’t far enough away from him. He drops his hand and takes a step back.

“You know,” Jounouchi says, taking half a step towards him, his head tilted up to look, honey behind blond lashes, “You have the same colour eyes.”

Kaiba can’t stop himself from looking right at him, his own head tilted down, surprise forcing the action. “Excuse me?”

“As her. As your dragon. It’s the same shade of blue.” 

He merely stares down at Jounouchi, wordless.

The blond’s tone falters, breaks apart with uncertainty. “... just an observation,” he says, a hand rubbing at the back of his neck.

Kaiba’s throat ties up in knots. He does not care about the colour of his eyes, he would swear he did not care about it five seconds ago. 

Jounouchi scratches at the back of his neck again, grinning but looking still uncertain. “It’s a nice colour,” he says. He drops his hand down to his side and adds, "On both of you." 

Kaiba feels another spike of warmth flood his chest. It’s uncomfortable; but its discomfort comes from its unfamiliarity and he knows that. He isn’t blind, he _ knows _what this is, and what it isn’t. Who he is and what he can’t do.

He looks at Jounouchi’s honey coloured eyes, at the white dragon perched perfectly on his shoulders, and at the bruise forming on his left temple. It’s odd, but in the low-light of the setting sun the faint freckles scattered across his nose and cheeks are more evident. 

Kaiba thinks of his brother, warm and safe in the front seat of his car.

“Go home, Jounouchi,” he says, frowning down at him.

“You’re using my name a lot,” Jounouchi takes a step closer, a full one this time. Kaiba doesn’t move. “That’s the second time in less than five minutes.” 

“And? It’s your name.”

“I like the way you say it.” Jounouchi’s sneakers dig into the pavement under him. He always walks heavy. Kaiba knows his gait, his height, every card in his deck, every attempt at strategy. “You always use the long form, and you kind of like… take your time with it.” 

“Stop.”

Jounouchi freezes but his mouth does not. “Kaiba.” His face is a bit pink, but it might be from the cold, and it looks strange next to the slow-forming bruise. “I didn’t mean to ruin anything,” he says. The words are weak with worry. Kaiba watches the way the light from the nearly-gone sun gets lost in blond hair.

“There’s nothing to ruin.”

“I think there is.”

“That’s your problem.” Kaiba turns to go. His heart is beating too fast and he does not know how to be in the middle of something like this. 

He does not turn around to look back. Kaiba steps into the driver's seat, the Red Eyes swooping in behind him, and he shuts the door, locking it. 

Mokuba gives him a look but Kaiba ignores it. Starting the car, he takes a few controlled breaths to force his heart rate to reasonable levels. 

_ I like talking to you. Teasing included. _

_ You dream about me often, Kaiba? _

_ Still in armour, still a hero. _

Gripping the wheel tight, the brunet scowls. His heart had sped up again. Why can't he control it? Even in the midst of a dangerous situation ― all those times with Yuugi ― he'd been able to calm down and think.

This is too much. Jounouchi is not the kind of person who _ wants _someone like Kaiba. He is a mess.

"Who, Jou?" Mokuba asks.

Had he said it out loud?

"Never mind." 

"Aw, he's not that bad."

"You're in trouble, Mokuba. Sit there quietly."

"Yeah, yeah." He folds his arms and slumps down in the seat. "If you want to talk, I'm always here."

He keeps his eyes on the street, not responding. Mokuba is stressed about his high school graduation, about what he will do after, about things changing. This incident is evident of that.

They have never been apart, all their lives, and his little brother wants to go to school in Australia. 

Kaiba does not want to talk about it. Not about anything.

\--

As soon as they're home and he's done interrogating his little brother, Kaiba makes himself a strong drink. He sits down in the kitchen of the penthouse, electing to go there for a better rest for both of them, and he closes his eyes.

There has been a lot going on. Kaiba pulls at the collar of his dress shirt, loosening it, and takes a slow drink.

At least he has work to do. 

The lights in the kitchen are low, dimmed for the sake of his aching head. 

Kaiba takes out his tablet with a sigh, crossing his legs neatly and leaning over the mahogany table. He is late completing the reports for the foreign investors. It's his own deadline so it does not matter, but he's irritated because he is never late. 

When Mokuba told him about his post-secondary plans, Kaiba had agreed with nothing more than a nod. It's a good idea. His brother wants a degree in virtual game design. Kaiba would never hold him back. If Mokuba could get an education behind him, things would be easier for him, in whatever he wanted to do. 

_ Seto... I don't want you to pay for it. _

Kaiba looks at the string of words he'd just typed. They are not what he'd meant to have typed. Frowning, he selects the text and deletes it. He starts again.

Overhead, he can hear the Red Eyes flying back and forth, playing some game with itself. Its presence has become normal. Undistracting, as long as he's not breaking Kaiba’s things. Sometimes it sleeps at the foot of his bed, or hides itself between the books in his office, popping out in an attempt to surprise him - one that never works. Sometimes it nips at his hair, and whenever it's on his shoulders it sets its head on top of his, huffing as if bored. 

Yuugi has not gotten back to him with an update. 

His fingers slip on the wrong keys, typing out an unrelated word.

He deletes it with a frown.

Above him still, the Red Eyes soars back and forth. The resulting wind tousles his hair slightly.

Ever since Kaiba took control of his life, and of Mokuba’s, he’d sworn no one would run it for him again. He does not care if this is some sort of prophetic prescription from the Shadow Realm. He will not succumb to the will of the universe. He’ll do things his own way.

That much is easy. 

Breathing out slowly, Kaiba returns to his work.

He makes it three sentences in before a bright and bordering-on-obnoxious voice echoes in his mind.

_ You know, you have the same colour eyes. _

Kaiba's fingers freeze on the keyboard.

_ As her. As your dragon. _

Uncontemplative of the action, he pulls his hands away from the tablet's small keyboard and reaches for his pocket. He takes his deck out. Shuffles through until he finds one of his three dragons, and stares. The eye colour is difficult to discern from the picture. Maybe, on the real thing, it's more clear.

_ It looks good. On both of you. _

His mind catches up to his actions, to the reason for them, and Kaiba frowns darkly. He shoves his deck back into his pocket and returns to his work. When he looks at the document he sees the character for ‘castle,’ the first part of Jounouchi's name, and feels his frown deepen.

_ ...just an observation. _

Years ago, he thought he was too good for everyone and everything. His ego as a teenager was bolstered by his natural ability to turn a profit and by that profit itself. There is a difference, he’s learned, between ego and confidence. He’d like to think he has a better understanding of that difference now that he’s in his twenties.

Kaiba does not dislike himself, but he knows his own abilities inside and out. He knows what he is good at: Duel Monsters, running a business, details, persistence, routine. 

And what he is not. 

There are things he can’t do, things he can’t give.

Jounouchi Katsuya is like Yuugi and his little brother and everyone else. Kind. Open. Honest. Not completely warped and neurotic and backwards from his childhood. A little rough from it, maybe, but not ruined.

He could meet someone. Jounouchi could find someone else. 

“That would be better,” Kaiba says absently to himself, his fingers still typing away at his report. 

The Red Eyes swoops over, landing on the table. It gives Kaiba one of its grins ― just an open jaw with jagged teeth gleaming and crimson eyes wide.

Kaiba stares at it. 

It must know, somehow, that he isn’t in the mood. The dragon drops his grin, his mouth closing with a snap. 

Slowly, he walks across the table and slips off it, falling into Kaiba’s lap. He curls himself into a ball, tucking his tail in, and stays still.

“I don’t need your pity.”

The dragon huffs. His tail beats against Kaiba’s thigh.

Taking a long drink, he sets a hand down to scratch at black scales, and goes back to his work.

* * *

Jounouchi arrives at the usual diner at 8:45, fifteen minutes early. The Blue Eyes is perched on his shoulders, as usual, and the waitress pours him a hot coffee as soon as she walks by. 

Jou stares out the large window at his side, looking out at the fall leaves cascading down the canopy of the morning sky. He takes a drink of his hot coffee. His feet are bouncing up and down, knees hitting the underside of the table. He grips the mug tight.

The Blue Eyes growls, annoyed by his fidgeting.

The residence of Domino have all heard by now of the "new tech" KC is developing, and how one of the top duelists in the country is helping Kaiba Seto himself test it out. A few kids glance his way while he waits, but for the most part people leave him alone. 

"Sorry," Jou says, patting the top of her head roughly, a bit unaware of the action. “I’m nervous.”

Yuugi had texted him this morning, about twenty minutes ago, and asked to meet him at the diner. He and Atem had found some information about the dragons, apparently from Ishizu which Jou guesses would be the obvious place to start. He likes having the Blue Eyes around, so he hasn’t exactly been scrambling to figure this all out. 

"Hey, Jou." Yuugi sits down across from him at the booth, dropping into it with a poof as the seats sink under him. “Sorry,” he says, “did you wait long?”

"Naw, I'm early, no worries."

The waitress comes over before Jou can interrogate his friend. He’s not even sure what they ordered by the time she leaves.

“Spill, Yuugi. What'd you find out?”

The shorter man hums, takes a drink of his tea, and then clears his throat. “Well…” he starts, watching Jou with a careful gaze, “Ishizu said they're spirit guides.”

"Whassat?" Jou asks around the rim of his mug.

"Exactly what it sounds like." Yuugi looks at him still, fingers playing at the corner of a napkin. “Jou. You're my best friend,” he says, “and nothing will ever change that. Not Kaiba, not anything.”

Jou nods to show he’s listening and waits for Yuugi to continue.

Yuugi lets go of the napkin and sets his eyes on the window. The wind outside is cool and strong. Red and yellow leaves are torn from the trees, almost like falling drops of fire. “Is there maybe something you want to tell him?” Yuugi asks, not making eye contact. “Something… you’ve wanted to say for awhile?”

Jounouchi feel his face flush with heat. 

He looks down at the black coffee in his mug, his knee still bouncing. "Aw," he kicks at the metal leg under the table, "Yuugi, don't act like you don't already know."

His best friend smiles at him, gentle like he always is about things like this. “I didn't want to assume,” Yuugi says. He clears his throat again. The pacing of his words, where Yuugi starts and stops, is just as familiar as the careful way he asks, “How long...?”

"Jeeze," Jou looks away, out the window at the leaf-fire, "I dunno." 

“How long, Jou?” Yuugi asks again.

“Uhhh.” The blond thinks back, tries to work out when he’d gone from finding Kaiba annoying to kind of liking the way he could get Jou worked up. When had he first noticed his eyes? When had he first noticed he had half a heart, buried under that rich-boy attitude? When had he noticed it was actually a full one? It all sort of runs together in his memory. There are a few distinct ones that come up, though, all around the same time. “Since Battle City, maybe,” he says at length. Jou had come in third place and Kaiba _ still _kept calling him a bad duelist ― that's probably when he started to question how much Kaiba actually meant it. And he had his personal doctors help Ryou, and he'd made that funny Blue Eyes machine that had decided the match-ups… And, back when they were still on the ground, he'd saved Anzu.

It got harder to hate him after that.

Yuugi’s eyes widen. "That’s― Jou, that’s _ years_." His friend's normally bright face drops into a small pout. "You never told me." 

It tugs at Jou's chest. He _ hates _making Yuugi sad. Sitting up straight, he hurries to explain, “I didn't know. I never let myself think about it too hard.” He rubs at the back of his neck. “I didn't realize it 'til yesterday.”

"What happened yesterday?"

"Well, I was workin' on my bike, and... oh. Uh.” He blinks as his brain shifts gears, “Shit, I didn't tell you. Mokuba got kidnapped yesterday.”

"What? Is he okay?"

"He's fine." He nods towards the Blue Eyes. "She lead me right to him."

Yuugi smiles at the dragon. “Figures,” he says. Then he looks at the side of Jou’s face. “I take it that's where the bruise is from?”

"Was wondering when you were gonna ask."

"I worried it was from a random fight."

"Naw, you know me better than that." He waves a hand dismissively. "Anyway, Mokuba’s fine. Home safe."

Yuugi's smile is sly. “And Kaiba? What did he have to say?”

Jounouchi looks down at Yuugi’s hands, ignoring his expression. “He... We had a weird conversation,” he replies, feeling his chest deflate. Jou’s not sure what their talk last night had meant. Kaiba was shrugging him off, but it hadn’t _ felt _like it. And it means something, he thinks, that when he’d called Kaiba and told him he was following whoever took Mokuba, he didn't tell Jou not to bother. 

Kaiba doesn’t rely on other people easily. That much Jou is sure of.

“You should tell him how you feel.” 

He looks at Yuugi with wide eyes, then shakes his head with a hoarse laugh. "_No_. No way. He might not hate me, Yuugi, but he definitely doesn't... you know.”

"Are you sure, Jou?"

“Yeah. I’m not- I can’t be his type. If he even _ has _one. He cares about like… three things.” He lifts a finger for each one, “Brother, work, duel monsters.” Closes his hand. “I’m not on the list.”

There’s a long pause; Yuugi studies his face, looking for something. Jou couldn’t say what. There shouldn’t be anything new for his friend of ten years to find. 

“Kaiba is difficult to read,” he says, the tenor lower; that’s Atem. He always uses longer words and he has an accent, too, that Jou finds easy to pick up on. “Bare that in mind.”

Jou looks out the window again, red leaves fluttering against the pane. The Blue Eyes on his shoulders digs her talons in, not painfully, and nudges him in the back of his head. She does that pretty often. As far as he can tell, it’s just her quirky way of showing affection.

Jou’s intuition’s always been good. He knows there’s _ something _there. Kaiba had been smiling at the game shop, and he always looks like he’s having fun when he teases Jou. That’s been true for years. He stands by what he said. Kaiba likes this, too.

But that doesn’t mean it _ means _anything. 

He must have a distressed expression on his face, because Yuugi looks at him with a worried frown. He leans forward from his side of the booth, talking with his hands as much as his mouth. "Wouldn't you feel better if you got it out in the open?" Yuugi asks. "Never mind Kaiba, or what he wants. For your own sake, don't you want it out?" 

Jou doesn’t reply. He hadn’t thought about this in terms of himself and what he might want. He’s just been thinking about Kaiba. 

“I think that's why the dragons are here,” his friend continues, leaning back in his seat. “You have something you want, and you want it badly enough that you summoned the monster your heart is the most connected to. And now it won't leave him alone.”

“Then… the Blue Eyes…” He trails off, knowing Yuugi will know what he’s asking.

“You have to ask him.” He shrugs. “Maybe you summoned both dragons on your own. I don’t know.”

“So it's not…”

“Not what?”

“I dunno, some Ancient Egyptian prophecy?”

“Would you really want it to be?”

Jou digs his heels into the tiled floor under him, irritated. “It would be nice to know what the hell I'm supposed to do here.”

“Jou... _Kaiba_ doesn't like being told what to do.”

Jou snorts. “You can say that again.”

Yuugi sighs. "Listen. I think if you just come out and tell him how you feel, he's more likely to...” he smiles a little nervously, “... respond well.” 

“Yeah, _ sure_. By punching me right in the damn face.”

Yuugi gives him a levelled stare, silently telling him _ That isn’t true and you know it_. “I think once you tell him, the dragons will move on.” 

The blond feels his knees start to bounce under the table again, his heart rate climbing. “I dunno, I…”

“Jou.” Yuugi reaches out and takes hold of his lower arm, which is lying across the table. His knees stop bouncing. Yuugi always manages to help him calm down. “If he's an asshole about it, we toss him out. Right into the trash. I'll kick his butt in a duel to avenge your pride.”

“Aw, Yuugi,” he grins and wipes at his nose, hiding a fond smile behind a hand, “C'mere.” Jounouchi slips out of the booth and into the same side as Yuugi, running their sides up against each other. He turns and wraps his best friend in a tight hug. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again ― You're the best friend a guy could ask for.” 

Yuugi laughs and hugs him back.

Grinning wide, Jou lets him go. “Now bring the other you out. I wanna hug him too.”

“Alright,” Yuugi says with his own grin, this one a bit conniving.

Over the years, Jou’s gotten better at distinguishing Yuugi from the spirit, Atem. As soon as they switch, he grins wide and pulls the pharaoh into a hug. He’s a bit bigger than Yuugi but still pretty damn small. Jou squeezes as hard as he can.

Atem’s face in surprised for a moment ― Jou’s never hugged him before, and based on Yuugi’s grin he hadn’t discussed this event with his other self. But Atem’s mouth pulls into an easy smile soon enough. He hugs him back, a bit tentative but fully.

Still grinning, Jou releases the pharaoh. 

“If he does not realize how wonderful you are, Jounouchi,” Atem says, one hand on Jou’s upper arm, “then he does not deserve you.”

“Man…” Jou shakes his head, his face a bit warm. “You’re _ both _too good for me.” 

“That’s not true, my friend.” The spirit’s smile is small but honest, his voice full of fondness as he says, “Not at all.”

* * *

Standing outside Kaiba's office door, Jou raises his hand up to knock. He figures he should do this at least politely, so hopefully Kaiba will be nice about it, too. But his fist freezes in front of the door. His heart screams in his ears, pounding hard against his ribs. His teeth feel like they're rattling in his head. It's a lot like getting punched in the face.

"Come on, Katsuya, you can do this," he says to himself. From his shoulders the Blue Eyes growls her agreement. "It's just Kaiba. Since when do I care what he thinks?"

Since forever.

Jou groans and scratches as the sides of his head, tugging at his hair. "Whatever, whatever. I can _ do _this." 

Okay. So.

Just... tell him. Just knock on the door, rip the bandaid off, and get it over with.

Sure.

Easy.

…

It’s not. It’s absolutely not. Vaguely flirting at Kaiba last night was hard enough. Jou had been _ shaking_. He’d called his eyes pretty ― well, he’d told him they were the same colour as his favourite duel monster which he thinks ― hopes ― is more meaningful to Kaiba than ‘pretty.’ He’d gotten as close as he could before Kaiba told him to stop, looking up at him from only a foot away, felt his lips spread into a wobbled grin and―

His heart speeds up on him just _ thinking _about it.

Kaiba’s eyes aren’t pretty like the water or the sky; no, Kaiba’s eyes are intense, heavy, and a bit haunting. They’re more like blackholes of unfathomable blue darkness than anything ‘pretty.’ ‘Beautiful’ would be a better word, but he can’t imagine ever telling Kaiba _ that _.

What the hell is he even doing here, at his office door? 

Making an ass out of himself, that’s what. 

The thing is, Yuugi’s right. Jounouchi’s no coward. He owns his feelings, whatever they are, and he’d never back down just because something scares him. 

He wants this out.

He raises his hand to knock. But he freezes again. There's a lot that could go wrong. This is Kaiba Seto. What exactly does Jou expect to happen here? He's gonna freak him out again. Kaiba can be paranoid, he's wound-up _ tight_; he might think Jou's lying just to make fun of him. Maybe-

The door swings wide open, a woman appearing inside its frame in a business suit. She looks at Jou with surprise. "Oh. Excuse me," she says, and steps past him. As the door swings shut Jou sees Kaiba's brown head turned down towards his tablet, the Red Eyes perched on the windowsill behind him, and he shoots his hand out to stop the door from closing. His heart might as well be inside his damn mouth it's beating so loud in his ears.

The smack of his hand against the heavy door brings Kaiba's eyes up. His placid face drops instantly to a frown when he sees Jou.

The Red Eyes leaps up from the windowsill, showing all of is straggled teeth in an open-mouthed grin, and shoots straight for Jou. He catches the dragon with one arm, still holding the door open, and welcomes the distraction. "Hey buddy," Jou says, laughing as the Red Eyes rubs its face under his chin. "You're kinda sharp, you know." The dragon roars back happily. "Uh huh."

"What do you want."

Jou nudges the door shut behind him, stepping into Kaiba's office. Time to dive straight into hell, he guesses. Good thing he's been to the Shadow Realm a few times ― it's not like confessing to Kaiba could be worse than that.

“I uh…” He looks at the dragon in his arms, feels the one on his back, and looks at Kaiba, “I want to tell you something.”

Kaiba's shrouded in shadow from the long window behind him, the afternoon sun falling down against his back. There are long bags under his eyes, and his shoulders don't sit right. Jou realizes, after looking for awhile, that he's slouching.

“I don't have time for this," comes the sharp reply. "Get out.”

Jou smirks and folds his arms. “Change the code on the elevator, then, if you don't want me in here.”

Kaiba looks down and types something on his tablet. “Done," he says. There's no smile on his lips. 

“Jerk.” Jou looks around the room, scratching at black scales while he thinks of how to start this. “How's Mokuba?” He asks.

Kaiba’s glare doesn’t let up. “He is fine. Why wouldn't he be?”

“I was just askin'.” Jou does his best to keep any bite out of his tone. “Did you figure out who those thugs were?”

“I fail to see how that is any of your business.”

“I wanna know,” Jou says. Kaiba only continues to glare unsaturated hate at him. He shifts the dragon in his arms to get a better grip. “If your Blue Eyes is gonna lead me straight to Mokuba if he's in danger - I should know.”

Kaiba’s mouth is stiff, his jaw tight; he looks stressed. He's still slouching, though it's hard to tell. Jou thinks he can see it only because he's so used to seeing him upright and looming.

“The authorities interrogated the one you left on the pier. Nothing was gained." The light from the window vanishes as a heavy white cloud rolls over the sun. "Is that all?"

"No." Jou takes a chance and walks further into the room. He doesn’t stop until he’s at Kaiba’s desk, and gets a thrill when he realizes those dark eyes watch him the whole way. "There's something I need to tell you, I said."

"So you chose to come here, in the middle of my workday?"

"Not happy to see me?"

"No."

He grins down at Kaiba, setting one hand on the edge of his desk. “Not even a little?” Jou thinks to himself _ what the hell _and winks at him. 

Kaiba goes rigid. His eyes widen like Jou had caught him doing something bad. 

A scowl replaces the weird look quickly, and Kaiba flashes his gaze back down at his tablet, ignoring him as if Jou's nothing more than a fly on the wall.

“Why are you like this?” Jou asks, meaning to tease him.

“This is who I am, Jounouchi.” Kaiba’s fingers clack at the keyboard of his tablet. His tone is flat, indifferent. “It's not going to change.”

“You think I don't know that?”

“I think you're too stupid to really understand it.”

Jou bites his tongue down hard on a rude reply. He thinks ― he's _ pretty _sure ― that Kaiba is just deflecting. “I already told you,” he says, smiling just a little, keeping his tone low, “I like how you are.” 

The black dragon in his arms opens his mouth into a toothy grin, a small happy growl accompanying Jou's words. Almost like it’s saying _ Me too. _

“No.” Kaiba’s fingers stop dead at his keyboard. He pushes himself away from his desk, eyes shut tight and brows eating at their inside corners. “You don't.”

There is something heavier about his voice, something darker. Jou doesn’t think he’s heard it sound like that since high school. Kaiba stands up, walks methodically around his desk, and stops a few feet away from him. He folds his arms. His blue eyes look almost black. "I _ dislike _talking to you, Jounouchi. How many times do you need me to say it before you get it through your thick skull?" 

“Kai-”

The brunet cuts him off, “You have some convoluted, idiotic _ idea _ that you've managed to pull from the shallows of your subconscious. And that is _ not _my problem.”

Jou's smile drops and he starts to feel like he’s drowning, in over his head in something he desperately wants to understand, to fix, "I don't believe you. I think you like me just fine," he says, taking a step towards the taller man.

Kaiba laughs, mockingly, once and dark and low. Angry lines form around his eyes as his glare deepens, and Jou think he hears his jaw crack as he opens it to speak. “You're a terrible duelist who relies on luck and gambles,” he says, tone flattening out to dead and his stare just as emptying. "You follow Yuugi around because you're incapable of having any original thought, or of leading your own life."

Kaiba takes a step closer, and Jou finds his feet taking a few back.

"You think you're a decent older brother but in reality your sister grew up in a different city and you had hardly any influence over her." He turns his chin up, looking at Jou like he's about as appealing as a communicable disease. "If anything, _ she _ is the one who takes care of _ you_."

The Blue Eyes on his back growls, the sound defensive; the Red Eyes cradled in his arms makes a chirping noise like he doesn't understand. Jou can't move, let alone make a sound. He just watches.

Kaiba sets a hand on his desk, his frown placid, finger tips barely pressing into the wooden surface. "You think Yuugi's managed to help you change," those dark blue eyes don't have a hint of light, of life, of anything, "but people like you don't. You will inevitably quit you job because it is demanding, quit dueling because you are subpar at it, and return to what you know.”

Jou can only stand there with his mouth hanging open, mind spinning a mile a second. The Blue Eyes digs her claws into his shoulders. 

Kaiba's hand on is desk balls into a fist. He might as well spit the next words out, pure venom and corrosive. “Now get out of my building, _ mutt_, before I have you tossed into the street where you belong.”

With that, Kaiba sets himself back down at his desk, not looking at Jou.

The blond stands there for a full minute. Just staring at the top of a brown head, his teeth grinding, both dragons swinging their tails. 

He’s angrier than anything and wants to lash out, to scream at Kaiba that if _ that’s _ how he’s really felt this entire time than he shouldn’t have lead Jounouchi to believe something else. Because there _ is _ , there fucking _ is _ something else. He knows it. That's why he's fucking here, _ trying_.

_ Now get out of my building, mutt―_

_ You're using my name a lot lately. _

His anger flickers with sadness, just for a beat, only for an instant. Jou closes his eyes. 

“You know what, Kaiba?” He grips the Red Eyes tighter against him, biting down hard on the inside of his cheek. He won't let Kaiba rile him. Jou is done. “Fuck you. If _ you _ want to fucking _ pretend―_ If you want to rot away alone for the rest of your life, be my goddamn guest.” 

Jou turns, heavy on the balls of his feet, and stomps away.

He’s never talking to Kaiba again. He has a limit and the brunet had reached it. Moneybags can kiss his ass. There are eight-billion people in the world. Jounouchi doesn’t need _ him. _

The Red Eyes slips from his arms, flying over towards the brunet; he lands on Kaiba's desk, looking at him. His black tail lies down flat against the wooden surface. A low noise rumbles through his body. It sounds sad.

Kaiba doesn't look up from his screen.

The joints in his wrist and hand snap as Jou grips the side of the huge oak door. He cranes his torso sideways to glare at the other man. “You’re an asshole, you’re gonna die alone in that mansion of yours and I sure as hell _ain’t gonna_ _fuckin'_ _care_.”

The cloud moves beyond the sun and Kaiba, still not looking at him, drowns in his own shadow.

"If you ever talk about my sister again I'll hit you so hard you'll forget who you are." Gripping the door tight, Jou pulls to yank it open, intending to slam it shut when he leaves.

Nothing happens.

Jou tries again, pulling with all of his strength.

Nadda. It won’t budge.

“What the hell?” He glares at the dark oak. “Hey rich-boy, your door is stuck!”

There’s no response. 

“_Kaiba_, don’t ignore me you godda-”

When Jou turns around, he’s met with two pairs of dragon eyes. One set blue, the other red. He isn’t afraid, not at first. Both sets are familiar. But the room starts to get hot, unnaturally warm, like a desert had sprung up in the midst of Kaiba's office. He peers around the dragons, floating in the middle of the room, and sees Kaiba standing behind his desk, eyes wide.

“What’s-” the brunet starts.

The dragons open their mouths, two thunderous calls echoing out. Jou tries to cross the room but his feet won’t move, stuck as still as stone.

The room explodes into white, and then all Jounouchi knows is that he’s falling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ((Jou scored major points for telling Kaiba he has the same colour eyes as the real Blue Eyes White Dragon. Kaiba fucking _melted_, okay??? He’s never getting over it.))


End file.
